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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A splendid weekend, indeed.

Hello friends.

This weekend I am going on my very first "stage", which is where you go to a restaurant and work a shift to see if you and the establishment will be a good fit for one another. Sometimes you just tour around and watch, helping clean and taking care of small things; and other times you are assigned products to make and are set out on your own. It can really go either way, so I am trying just to relax and have fun with it.

Which would be much easier to do if the place wasn't as garganuienly, pristeinely fantastic as it is.

My very first stage experience is going to be at Restaurant Daniel.

We are talking three Michelin stars. Reputation of perfection. Daniel Boulud. HOLY COW.

I am so excited! I simply can not wait.

Even if I am not offered the position, it will be an honor just to be in that kitchen.

But anyway, I digress.

The reason that last weekend was so splendid was because my parents took me into Manhattan to walk to the restaurant that I will be staging in this weekend- so that I would know how to get there and all. So after a simply gorgeous stroll around the park and down to Daniel, we went to one of Chef Boulud's other places. His bakery! Oh boy. My Dad and I have gone before, but we wanted my Mom to have a chance to check it out. Let me tell you, these pastries were immaculate.

Of course, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I snatched these pictures from google.

I can go on, and on, and on about how inspirational and beautiful Epicerie Boulud is. But you really need to visit it and see for yourself. Take a look at the webpage, you can also get to Restaurant Daniel from there. So, so wonderful.

http://www.danielnyc.com/epicerie.html

Daniel Boulud came to my school for the Bocuse d'Or culinary competition preliminaries, and while I did not get the chance to meet him myself, I heard some of the most heartwarming stories about his interactions with the students. He is a superhero to us, and he certainly did not let any of us down. Hundreds of pictures of him with students popped up on facebook after the event, and in each one he was wearing the biggest, most endearing smile, with his arm around their shoulder.